AI Literacy Salon: Why Machines Can't Be Smart (Signal and Sign)
AI can write. It cannot mean.
Intelligence requires meaning. Language models, like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, have no meaning, only math. That distinction is the most important thing nobody is talking about.
AI Literacy is a space to consider where AI meets human processes, and to decipher how these tools can shape our attention, our communication, and the ways we work with computers and each other.
Most conversations about AI focus on what it can do. This one asks something different: what does it mean to understand it?
Salon #2: Signal and Sign
Can a calculator understand poetry?
In a famous experiment, researchers found a single neuron in a patient's brain that fired for Jennifer Aniston — her photo, her name, even a cartoon sketch. One cell, one concept. That's how human cognition organizes meaning: sharp, symbolic, compressed.
Large language models do something else. They process language as statistics; probabilities and distances between tokens. The output can sound like understanding, but no concept is held anywhere inside. The fluency is real. The comprehension isn't.
A language model has no Jennifer Aniston neuron. It has no neurons at all, just weights. There is no "there" there.
This salon sits in that gap. As AI gets embedded in how we write, summarize, and decide, the difference between meaning and pattern-matching is shaping real judgment calls. We'll explore what that means for how we communicate and think, and for the literacies we need to stay intentional.
In this space, we invite curiosity over conclusions. Come ready to think, question, and engage.
Facilitated by Nitzan Hermon
Nitzan Hermon is a coach and educator working at the intersection of complexity, systems thinking, leadership, and personal development.
Featured Guests:
Johnny Dance
Johnny Dance is an investor, author, and artist. Originally from Australia, he spent many years in Hong Kong and London before settling in Boston. He is writing a book on mathematics games and ontology.
Kristy Zadrozny is a NYC therapist and Chief Clinical Officer at Calla Collective, a reproductive mental health practice. Drawing on psychodynamic theory, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness, she helps thoughtful people wake up from autopilot and build a richer relationship with uncertainty and meaning.
Stephen P. Williams is a journalist, author, and ghostwriter who writes narrative nonfiction and fiction, and collaborates on books with leading thinkers and public figures. Lately, he's been teaching the models of a large AI company how to write better, in the process learning what it is like to collaborate with a machine.